MUET is an English proficiency test and a prerequisite for the pre-university students to pursue their tertiary education in Malaysia. Having an excellent score in MUET will open up your available choices in opting courses in local universities and of course the chance to enter high ranking varsity. Although it is not stated in written form, but some critical courses like Medicine and Law require at least a Band 5 for local universities especially Universiti Malaya (UM) and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). However, if you are not interested in these courses, getting a minimum of Band 4 will be more than enough. In this blog, I will share some personal strategies on how I encounter MUET exam. Keep in mind that this blog is about strategies, not skills or ways to improve your English!
1. Reading Component is Important
I put this as the first one because it is the most vital one! Note that according to the score distribution, reading component consists of 40% of the total score, which is nearly half of the paper. That means if you don't mess it up this part, you will likely to achieve your own target!
For the front part, you need to figure out well how the True, False and Not Stated questions work! This requires some effort to put in but here I would give my own advice to wreck this part. In short:
True: Facts that are mentioned in the passage and it is true.
False: Facts that are mentioned in the passage but the meaning is different from the passage.
Not stated: Facts that are not mentioned in the passage, not matter it is logical or not.
Most of student will likely confuse on the False and Not Stated and I was one of them before. However, don't be lazy to try out some exercises as the more experience you are, you will distinguish it better!
For other type of comprehension questions, you have no other path but to refer the passage. But then, it would take up a lot of time to read the whole article right? So you need to act smart and not read hard here!
How?
The tip to be fast is by skimming the passage and not reading. When you are answering the question, you just need to find the keywords back in the passage and for most of the time, the answer will be not far away! This works for most of the "direct" questions. I have tried this method every time and it proved to be useful and time-saving!
2. Grab Your Time To Read The Questions!
This technique is applicable for all components, from reading, speaking, writing till listening. Before the test starts, you will be given time to check the test questions, so it's the time you need to take advantage of! Having a skim to all of the questions, especially the essay and listening part gives you an idea on what we will going on in the next hour. By the time you read the question, your subconscious starts to process the questions and drafting it in your mind. This simple action enables you to save up your precious time in exam, as you avoid from wasting time, stuck on the same question. For listening part, you will be aware of what the questions about, and this makes you to listen attentively for the keywords that link to the questions. The chance you missing out will be highly reduced!
3. Having A Script in Speaking Component
Having your own script helps you to have mental preparation, that avoid you from messing up when you panic. This script is a life saver for me as I had lots of experience playing the role as Candidate A (first person to speak). The script here doesn't mean you need to memorize tons of perfect score passages. Here is the script format you should have:
-Greet: Simple and short will do, greet the examiners and your teammates
-First point+ Elaboration 1+ Elaboration 2 + Elaboration 3
-Second point+Elaboration 1+ Elaboration 2 + Elaboration 3
-Third point+Elaboration 1+ Elaboration 2 + Elaboration 3 (if the time is enough)
-Conclusion
Eg: "A every good morning to the examiners and my fellow teammates. Based on the title given, I believe that doing with your hobbies(your option) is the best way to reduce stress ( title) First and foremost, hobbies are activities that we like to carry out (1st point) when we are free and one will feel enjoy and relax whenever he or she is doing their hobbies. This will distract us away from the problems and enjoy a moment of peace. Doing something we love to will also stimulate our brain to produce endorphins, which makes us physically happy and it will effectively lower down our stress level...(other point of views)...In short, I would suggest that (your option), thank you!"
This is only my personal suggestion and of course there are various type of version which are better than this. While the language and vocabularies used affects the marks you score, don't forget that your ideas play vital role too! Choose the one which fit your style will do, where you feel comfortable when using it. I recommend you to choose one as the permanent option because if you use it frequently, it appears to be more natural and fluent. The content part is much more flexible and you shall plan it with your own creativity!
My advice will be focusing in the individual section, as we cannot predict how the group discussion will going. If you are sitting the exam with strangers, you may face difficulty in engaging into the conservation.
4. Creating Excitement Or Hype in Group Discussion
This tip applied to the group discussion session. A minimum of 10 minutes discussion is needed, so what you have to do to maintain discussion? By creating arguments is one of the best way I have used before! If all speakers agree to the same idea, it would be hard for the discussion to maintain as you couldn't just repeat your statements. Repeating the same thing makes it worse as that will irritate the examiners. Apart from irritating them, the discussion itself would be boring and meaningless. A great presented discussion need some excitement or hype, that can attract the attention from the examiners.
The question is, how to create them?
Creating excitement or hype is not something difficult as you think. The most direct way will be going against other candidates' opinion! Well, don't see it as a debate battle, just express a different point of view about your teammates point. You can argue your teammates point of view , or perhaps, suggest ways to improve it. Or else, you may express your own idea and let them find out which is the best! By doing this, I am sure that you may have a lot of topics need to express out and for sure, the examiners will be hooked up to everything single details of your discussion. However, this technique should be performed naturally. Putting too much "dramas" may distract your discussion from the topic given and out of topic is a deadly blunder.
These are some beneficial strategies that aid me to achieve Band 5 title in one attempt. I hope that by sharing these tips, it may help you to get your own dream score! You are encouraged to drop any thoughts or queries in the comment box below!
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